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How to do reverse bay park

Bay parking is one of the manoeuvres you will need to learn in order to succeed in your driving test. There are two different techniques to carrying out this manoeuvre.

1 Drive straight forwards and reverse at a right angle either to the left of right.
2.Drive into a bay opposite the one you want then reverse in a straight line backwards

When parking in a car park it is safer to reverse into a space than drive into it, so it is very important that your observations are effective and you keep the speed of your vehicle down to a very slow walking pace.

At the Beginning or at the End of your driving test you may be required to do the reverse park exercise by reversing into a parking bay in the driving test car park.
The examiner will say something similar to this . . ..

At the beginning of your test
"Please drive out of this bay and reverse into another bay of your choice."

At the end of your Test
"Please reverse your car into any bay of your choice."

In order to do this manoeuvre successfully there are 3 key points :

Control: Use the clutch control while steering.Accuracy: Position the car between the lines and do not cross them.Observation:All round observation throughout the manoeuvre

When choosing a bay to reverse into make sure you have sufficient space to park and open your doors. The location of the car park will determine how you line your vehicle up to start your manoeuvre.

1. Preperation
Take good all round observations to make sure it is safe to move.

2. Location
Choose the bay you want to reverse into and pull up about two car lengths past it. Select reverse gear prepare the car to move, take good all round observations and if it is safe, continue the manoeuvre

3. Position to turn
Look behind and reverse slowly so that the passenger door has a bay line half way through it as in the picture with red arrow.
At this point slow down and take good all round observations again and if it is safe to carry on steer full lock to the left as the car moves slowly into the bay.
This method will help you park the car on bay number 3 .

4. Throughout this manoeuvre you should be looking through the rear window, you can however take glances in your door mirrors if this helps you to successfully position the car.

As the car becomes straight and parallel with the white lines, straighten the steering as appropriate so that your car finishes parked straight and centrally between the two white lines.

If at any time during this manoeuvre a car, pedestrian, cyclist etc. approaches, stop the car. Either let them go past or if they stop to let you carry on then continue with the manoeuvre

Once you have parked into the bay apply the handbrake, select neutral and wait for instructions to proceed.

To do this manoeuvre successfully you will need to be able to co-ordinate the speed of the car with the steering and carry out effective observations.